I recently had to confront a new bad habit: I wasn’t listening to enough music. It was a carryover I think, slurry from the very beginning of COVID, when it seemed like everything took forever while any larger sense of time vanished, absorbed into a kind of recursive panic and withdrawal.
Days became weeks became months, and in October I decided to set aside time each day to listen to one record in its entirety without other distraction or complement. It was a good start, but I missed some days and thought logging the nightly plays for the entirety of November would hold me to the plan.
It worked. I’m not sure I’ll do this again but if I do, I might include CDs and digital releases as well, instead of limiting the exercise to vinyl. I’m pretty attached to putting on music though, so I’m not sure how that would shake out. We’ll see.
It’s worth noting that these listenings offered no escape as such — I’ve had enough of that — but have rather given me something to experience outside of my usual routines, which is, of course, why I got into music in the first place.
11/01 Paul Bley, Alone, Again LP (Spotify)
11/02 Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, John Tchicai, Roswell Rudd, Gary Peacock, Sonny Murray, New York Eye and Ear Control LP (Spotify)
11/02 Luke Stewart, Exposure Quintet LP (Bandcamp)
11/03 Alan Braufman, The Fire Still Burns LP (Bandcamp)
11/04 Benjamin Britten, String Quartets Nos. 2 & 3, performed by the The Alberni Steing Quartet (Spotify)
11/05 Aquiles Navarro + Tcheser Holmes, Heritage of the Invisible II LP (Bandcamp)
11/06 Rob Mazurek, Alternate Moon Cycles LP (Bandcamp)
11/07 Michael Galasso, Scenes LP (Spotify)
11/08 Max Richter, Songs from Before LP (Spotify)
11/09 Matana Roberts, Coin Coin Volume Four: Memphis LP (Bandcamp)
11/10 Masayoshi Fujita, Book of Life LP (Bandcamp)
11/11 Erik Friedlander, American Power LP (Bandcamp)
11/12 Akira Miyazawa, My Piccolo LP (Discogs)
11/13 Richard Davis, Harvest LP (Discogs)
11/14 Julius Hemphill & Abdul Wadud, Live in New York_LP (Spotify)
11/15 Tsege Mariam Gebru, Spielt Eigene Kompositionen LP (Spotify — this is not the album I have but rather the entire session from which the release I have is culled.)
11/16 Hamiett Bluiett, Orchestra, Duo & Septet LP (Discogs)
11/17 Morton Feldman, For Brunita Marcus (performed by Lenio Liatsou) LP (Discogs or a different performance/recording on Spotify)
11/18 John Coltrane / Alice Coltrane, Cosmic Music LP (Spotify)
11/19 Rashied Ali / Frank Lowe, Duo Exchange LP (Bandcamp)
11/20 Anthony Davis Hemispheres LP (Discogs)
11/21 Leroy Jenkins, The Legend of Ai Glatson LP (Spotify)
11/22 The Pyramids, King of Kings LP (Spotify)
11/23 Black Unity Trio, Al-Fatihah LP (Discogs)
11/24 Wildflowers: the New York Loft Jazz Sessions, Vol. 1 LP (Spotify)
11/25 Wildflowers: the New York Loft Jazz Sessions, Vol. 2 LP (Spotify)
11/26 Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe & Ariel Kalma, FRKWYS Vol. 12: We Know Each Other Somehow LP (Spotify)
11/26 Rob Mazurek – Exploding Star Orchestra, Dimensional Stardust LP (Bandcamp)
11/27 Alessandro Cortini, Forse 1 LP (Bandcamp)
11/28 Jeremy Cunningham, The Weather Up There LP (Bandcamp)
11/29 Philip Glass, Music in Twelve Parts: Parts 1 & 2 LP (Discogs
11/30 Freedom, Rhythm & Sound: Revolutionary Jazz & the Civil Rights Movement 1963-82, Volume 2 LP (Discogs)